A few for Friday

***A few things on my mind today. It is April 15. You think taxes. I think camino. Five short months from today we will board a plane (yes, tickets have been purchased) and fly to Paris. After spending the night there, we fly (cheaper than the train, go figure) to Biarritz, then make our way to St. Jean Pied de Port to begin the walking portion of our camino. God willing, all of this will happen and nothing will befall us before or during. We’ve both seen some setbacks of various sorts, but we press on – ultreia! My thanks go to many of you out there. In late July when I began to write about our pilgrimage, waves of generosity kept knocking me over, they still do! And my gratitude has me spring back up and keep going. If this has no context, click here to begin, or simply search the blog on the term camino.) Remember, if you have any prayer requests, you can send them to me now or at any time leading up to departure. And please pray for us! Thank you!

***My alleged blog hiatus, which has not been very hiatus-y. I’m working on a

Advertisement

Walls or bridges?

“Why haven’t you written something on your blog about Pope Francis and Donald Trump? As the Catholic blogger for the Times Union, don’t you have a responsibility to write about these things?”  The question arrived in the form of an email from an acquaintance and took me by surprise.

As it happens, I am not the only Catholic blogger on the Religion/Beliefs corner of the TU blog platform. My friend, former grad school classmate Walter Ayers is present in that space as well. And I do not bear any responsibility to do anything. It goes like this – the paper asked if I would blog on their platform four years ago and I agreed. If I stop blogging, the newspaper police burst through my door and drag me before my “blog boss” Michael Huber, who is the Interactive Audience Manager for the paper. In fact, I have so few obligations, I keep this platform up, my “home” space, and the newspaper blog is a mirror.

That reply to my acquaintance generated another question. “Don’t you care about what is happening?” Oh I do, trust me – I

Scientia et ecclesiae

A black hole… I feel like if I fell in, I’d find God. (courtesy of APOD. )

On Thursday I posted about going to see Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ at SUNY Albany, where he was giving a talk about Galileo. There was a little Twitter-versy (you know, a Twitter controversy!) because I called Brother Guy the “mayor of nerd and geek.” I’ll have everyone know that such things are said with the greatest respect. I see myself as church nerd meets science geek – even if I was never a great science student.

In any event, all of this was precipitated by my annoyance with something that I read in the Albany Times Union a couple of weeks ago – read that Thursday post for context. In my annoyance, I wrote a letter to the editor and dashed it off to the paper via email. A P.S. was included, saying that I would be happy to write a column for the paper’s Saturday belief page on the topic. Well, I went ahead and wrote the column and I am pleased to say that it is running today.  That Brother Guy showed up days before was a real gift, and I thank City Page editor extraordinaire Rob Brill for letting me know about the talk!

The Albany Times Union has a free and open website; I know some of you do not like to follow links, but it is safe, no registration required, no “you have 9 more articles to enjoy so please subscribe messages.” Have a look and let me know what you think! The column, entitled Church, science, in synch, can be found by clicking here.

And if you want to explore further, may I suggest, as I do in the column, to use the internet. Also consider getting daily emails from APOD via Greg Tracy, which is like a prayer for me.  (Not to mention you can offer him a little support in this great work that he does…) And don’t forget to follow Brother Guy on Twitter, where he is found @Specolations.

Let me know what you think of the column, commenting here if you will.  And please feel free to share it if you wish.

May we all be sealed, may we all be changed

Wishes of L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatemt to all who celebrate Rosh Hashanah.This greeting means may you be inscribed (or sealed) for a good year, or sometimes one will say, a sweet year. That is behind the symbolism of dipping apples in honey for Rosh Hashanah. Read a little more about that at this link. The apples and honey dish below can be ordered from Gans, in Jerusalem, a lovely shop. Perhaps Mark and I remain the only non-Jews who ever had a wedding registry there? I don’t know!

OK, you’re thinking, this is the blog of a Catholic, what’s with this? Well, as I like to remind everyone, Jesus was born as a Jew, lived as a Jew, died as Jew. Questions? Good – that’s what I thought, let’s move on.

Anyway, as I have mentioned numerous times before, I have some Jewish roots of my own, and my heart is moved by these holidays as well as the ones I celebrate.

Rosh Hashanah, for those less familiar with it, opens the new year celebration. It is followed by the Days of Awe, and end with Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year. On that day, one comes before G-d and fasts and prays, in order to make amends and start fresh.

That is why I was stuck by a recent column, written by my friend, Diane Cameron. Diane is an author who lives in the Albany area, and has a regular Times Union column. my life has been greatly enriched by knowing this talented and wonderful woman. On Labor Day she wrote about how it feels so much like a new year, more than January does. Go read her column, it is right here. It was very thought provoking and hit home for me. And very much in line with the Jewish new year.

Whoever you are and however you celebrate days, I wish you a sweet new year. Here’s a fun Rosh Hashanah music video, with a unique interpretation of the Daft Punk song, Get Lucky, done up Jerusalem style – Get Clairty. May we all be sealed, may we all be changed. My wishes are for days of transformation for one and all.

May we all be sealed, may we all be changed

Wishes of L’shanah tovah tikatev v’taihatemt to all who celebrate Rosh Hashanah.This greeting means may you be inscribed (or sealed) for a good year, or sometimes one will say, a sweet year. That is behind the symbolism of dipping apples in honey for Rosh Hashanah. Read a little more about that at this link. The apples and honey dish below can be ordered from Gans, in Jerusalem, a lovely shop. Perhaps Mark and I remain the only non-Jews who ever had a wedding registry there? I don’t know!

OK, you’re thinking, this is the blog of a Catholic, what’s with this? Well, as I like to remind everyone, Jesus was born as a Jew, lived as a Jew, died as Jew. Questions? Good – that’s what I thought, let’s move on.

Anyway, as I have mentioned numerous times before, I have some Jewish roots of my own, and my heart is moved by these holidays as well as the ones I celebrate.

Rosh Hashanah, for those less familiar with it, opens the new year celebration. It is followed by the Days of Awe, and end with Yom Kippur, which is the holiest day of the year. On that day, one comes before G-d and fasts and prays, in order to make amends and start fresh.

That is why I was stuck by a recent column, written by my friend, Diane Cameron. Diane is an author who lives in the Albany area, and has a regular Times Union column. my life has been greatly enriched by knowing this talented and wonderful woman. On Labor Day she wrote about how it feels so much like a new year, more than January does. Go read her column, it is right here. It was very thought provoking and hit home for me. And very much in line with the Jewish new year.

Whoever you are and however you celebrate days, I wish you a sweet new year. Here’s a fun Rosh Hashanah music video, with a unique interpretation of the Daft Punk song, Get Lucky, done up Jerusalem style – Get Clairty. May we all be sealed, may we all be changed. My wishes are for days of transformation for one and all.